New Study Predicts the Busiest Holiday Shopping Days This Year

It’s been five years since retailers have been handed this holiday helper: There will be four Saturdays in December prior to Christmas Day, a fortuitous calendar configuration that last happened in 2012.

According to consumer analytics firm ShopperTrak, the extra shopping day may result in better overall holiday sales.

The company expects the busiest shopping day of the year to fall on Black Friday, Nov. 24, with Saturday, Dec. 23 (Super Saturday), and Saturday, Dec. 16, rounding out the top three shopping days this year.

Saturday, Dec. 30, will offer another full day of shopping while gazillions of consumers are still off work for the holidays, set to celebrate New Year’s Eve. Retailers could see better post-Christmas traffic than they have the past few years.

“Based on our historical analysis, we know that Black Friday will remain the busiest shopping day for brick-and-mortar retail,” said Brian Field, senior director of advisory services at ShopperTrak.

“The Thanksgiving Day weekend, which includes Black Friday as the busiest day and November 25 as the fifth busiest day, will be a critical span of days for retailers as they head into the holiday season.”

Here’s the full list of ShopperTrak’s predicted busiest days, in descending order: